The European Commission published on 30/05/2012 its Communication to the European Parliament and the Council, namely the 3rd Annual Report on Migration and Asylum. The Report encompasses an analysis of EU policy on immigration and international protection based on developments in 2011.
UNHCR published a Guide on Working with Men and Boy Survivors of Sexual and Gender-based Violence in Forced Displacement. The Guide emphasizes that sexual violence and rape can be used as a weapon of war against men as well as women, that it is inflicted on men as a means of disempowerment, dominance and undermining concepts of masculinity, discussed triggers for survival sex. The Guide further provides with a number of indicators for identification of survivors.
Amnesty International has published its annual human rights report for 2013, with a country-by-country account of the situation of human rights and a global analysis. The report devotes significant attention to asylum and migration issues and criticises the EU in this respect.
The Committee of Ministers has adopted Protocol No. 16 to the European Convention on Human Rights. The protocol provides for States’ highest courts to obtain opinions on questions of principle regarding the interpretation and/or application of rights and freedom defined in the Convention and its protocols. The goal of the new protocol is to resolve these questions before they reach Strasbourg, saving Court resources and enabling speedier resolution of cases at the national level. The protocol will enter into force once 10 parties to the Convention have ratified it.
The applicant is a Belarusian national who was arrested in Moscow in May 2011 following an international arrest warrant from Belarus and placed in detention. His detention was extended on several occasions. Although the Russian authorities approved his extradition, it did not take place because the ECtHR issued an interim measure preventing it. The applicant had also requested asylum shortly after his detention. His claim was at first dismissed.
On 19 December COREPER reached a partial general approach on the draft Regulation establishing the Asylum and Migration Fund. This will constitute the basis for the upcoming negotiations with the European Parliament in the context of the ordinary legislative procedure.
During its meeting on 7 and 8 March, the Justice and Home Affairs Council heard a presentation by the European Commission on the Smart Borders Package, which the Commission had tabled last week. It was also updated on the state of play of the asylum procedures directive and the Eurodac regulation. Issues that remain to be solved in relation to these two legislative proposals concern special procedures for unaccompanied minors and victims of torture and access to Eurodac data by law enforcement authorities.
The Corte Suprema di Cassazione (second grade of appeal only on matters of law) ruled against a decision of the Court of Appeal that overturned the decision of the first instance court (Tribunale) which granted humanitarian protection status to a Tunisian national on grounds of the persecution he would have suffered being gay and Christian (he did not get asylum or subsidiary protection due to his criminal activities).
Eurostat published statistics on asylum decisions by the EU Member States in 2012. The data shows Member States granted protection to more than 100,000 asylum seekers. The highest numbers of grants of protection came from Germany (22,000), Sweden (15,300), the UK (14,600) and France (14,300). Citizens of Syria constituted the largest group of beneficiaries (18%), followed by Afghanistan (13%) and Somalia (8%). A total of 407,300 decisions were made: 274,500 were first instance decisions and 132,800 were appeals.
